On February 23, the Ford School will host graduate students from 14 univerisities to participate in the 2019 NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation Competition. This year’s competition—a partnership between the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA)—will connect a record 585 students from 11 global host sites including Dhaka, Cairo, Mexico City, and San Francisco to tackle policy issues associated with forced migration through computer-based simulated game play.

Local government fiscal health is typically assessed using objective financial indicators, but little is understood about how local officials subjectively understand their own fiscal health. We compare self-assessment data from the Michigan Public Policy Survey with financial data on Michigan local governments to explore the extent to which self-assessments align with conventional financial indicators. Qualitative results reveal that local officials emphasize long-term spending pressures (e.g. roads, infrastructure) and external factors, such as uncertainty around property values and state aid (i.e. revenue sharing) payments, when assessing their fiscal health. Quantitative results provide some corroborating evidence, but in general, conventional indicators are not powerful predictors of self-assessments, especially for high-stress governments. We believe that part of the disparity is that financial indicators do a poor job of capturing what local officials say they are most worried about. We suggest that self-assessments may be a useful supplement to conventional measures in capturing “true” fiscal health.

Does Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) expansion have a positive or negative effect on labor market outcomes and household well being in Washington DC? Hear Dr. Hardy discuss research on how EITC expansions undertaken by the Washington DC affect income and inequality in the city.

Though consumers look to technology for convenience and simplicity in financial services, the legal, technological and political systems beneath these are complex and ever-changing. Is robust consumer protection possible in a period of unprecedented and evolving financial innovation? Or is such regulation doomed to be outpaced by the speed of technology? As Americans become increasingly reliant on new financial technologies, what are the implications for consumer protection, security and privacy? The University of Michigan’s Center on Finance, Law, and Policy will convene regulators, researchers, data security and privacy experts, journalists, and financial technology companies for a two-day conference to consider new legal and regulatory questions raised by recent technological developments and the challenges facing consumers in a shifting policy environment. Rich Cordray , founding director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Rohit Chopra , Commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission will keynote.

The event will feature distinguished leaders in the field of workforce development and economic mobility including a keynote address from Walmart's Greg Foran, US President and CEO and Julie Gehrki, Vice President of Philanthropy, and closing remarks from Garlin Gilchrist, Lieutenant Governor of the State of Michigan.